Tuning Guide?

Is there a one written for beginners? Because I have no idea how tuning should work.

Apologies for the continuous new topics, I'm not that good at this game.

-Ace

"High x Alpha" is most versatile tunes.
(Power; +2 STR -1 TEC, +10 COST)
(Tech; +2 TEC, -1 STR, +10 COST)
(Run; +2 WLK, -1 FLY, +10 COST)
(Boost; +2 FLY, -1 WLK, +10 COST)
(Tough; +2 TGH, -1 FLY, +10 COST) (Least recommended)

Mixing "High x Beta" with "High y Beta" tends to do good, but is more complicated.
EX:
High Boost Beta (+2 FLY, -1 WLK, -1 STR, +5 COST)
+
High Tech Beta (+2 TEC, -1 STR, -1 FLY, +5 COST)
=
-2 STR, +2 TEC, -1 WLK, +1 FLY, +10 COST
Effective for FLYARTs and Generic AIRs if you're throwing STR in the negatives.

If you have many slots but not alot of capa, use generic "x" tunes.
(Power; +1 STR +5 COST)
(Tech; +1 TEC, +5 COST)
(Run; +1 WLK, +5 COST)
(Boost; +1 FLY, +5 COST)
(Tough; +1 TGH, +5 COST)

Avoid "Great x y" tunes unless you have little slots but alot of capa.
Always have at least 1 WLK or 1 FLY. To me, I'd keep 3 WLK or 3 FLY. But that's just me.

Life tunes got buffed recently. Life is where you should use Proto Cosmos on.
(Proto Life; +15 HP, +5 COST)
(Life; +15 HP, +10 COST)

Avoid combination tunes unless they're the ones that increase HP and a generic stats. Those tunes are effectively a generic tune and a regular life mixed together.
(Beast; +15 HP, +1 STR, +15 COST)
(Range; +15 HP, +1 TEC, +15 COST)
(Tank; +15 HP, +1 WLK, +15 COST)
(Eagle; +15 HP, +1 FLY, +15 COST)
(Sentinel; +15 HP, +1 TGH, +15 COST) (Most recommended)

I don't know much myself. Await for Trill or Suguri or someone to post.

I'm more confused on the lines of the tuning, the items, etc. I just know I have a few random items like drum mag and a bunch of different colored chips. Not really sure what to do with them.

Materials are used in accordance to formula to perform tune ups. You don't directly use them or anything.

The basics of the tuning process is:
- Go to the Cosmos Pot in either Lesson or Ground Area
- Select an item with open slots
- Select a tune to perform which can be applied to the item, and which you have the materials for.
- Choose to use items to either increase the success rate or prevent the slot from breaking on failure.

Cosmos Pot will handle all the dealings with the materials themselves, all you have to do is have enough. Whether or not the tune is successful, materials will be consumed.

If a tune is successful, you now have a tuned part, which will increase or decrease stats (or more effects), at the expense of increasing the cost of the part. The tune takes up one of the 1-3 slots on the part, and reduces the success rate of the next tune up on that same part by 10%. So, if you run the same tune up that has a 55% chance and succeeded, a second attempt on the same part would have instead a 45% chance of success.

If the tune is unsuccessful, and you didn't use an item to protect the slots, then the slot is broken permanently*. This prevents the slot from being tuned, but does not reduce the success rate of upcoming tunes. There is nothing positive about a broken slot, it effectively just reduces the number of potential tune slots on a part. As such, be careful about breaking slots on rare items that you only have one or few of.

*If a part is locked to a BD, such as the HD of any moe, then when that BD is junked and added to your garage, it will reset all slots. This destroys any successful tunes, but also has a side effect of repairing broken slots. Only works if the part is locked. Otherwise, the vast majority of parts being non-locked, a broken slot is irreversible.

This should basically cover all the beginner stuff. For a more detailed series of charts and such about the tuning formula and what materials are used for what tunes, I happen to have a guide here for that: http://www.cosmicbreakfanforum.com/t9335-tune-up-recipes-and-materials-usage-charts. Read that *after* you get the hang of things, though, it's a lot of data so if you're just getting into things, don't rush into it.